aerospace

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, is suing the US Air Force for awarding a no-bid military contract to United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 venture of Boeing and Lockheed. The contract, for 36 rockets to launch defence payloads such as satellites, went to ULA on a sole-source basis last December. By 2030, the Pentagon expects to spend almost $70bn on the program. While the two old aerospace monopolies sulked, many in the industry quietly cheered Musk, a California-based new generation immigrant entrepreneur, for challenging the lucrative contract awarded without open competitive bidding.

But Musk’s actions may have grave and unintended consequences. Read more

A general election in India is a busy time for the media, it’s a busy time for the gambling industry – and it’s also a busy time for the private aviation market, as would-be leaders scurry across the vast nation hoping to win over voters.

India’s Mangalyaan spacecraft has made its slingshot from the Earth’s orbit and is on its way to Mars. No doubt we will again hear the familiar refrain: why would a country struggling to ensure a fifth of its population gets a square meal a day want to go to Mars? It is not very different from asking why would NASA spend nearly $18bn on its space programme when nearly a fifth of the US population lacks decent healthcare. That kind of reasoning is myopic. A nation needs to do both – ensure basic human necessities and niceties, and also inspire its people to reach for the stars. Read more

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, or Mangalyaan (meaning Mars-craft), is orbiting the Earth in readiness to make its leap to Mars next month at an all-in cost of a meagre $72m. This is the kind of money an Indian metropolis spends in a major festival week, or how much it costs to make a few Bollywood blockbusters – small change these days, even by Indian standards.

Compare that with NASA’s Maven mission, which took off for Mars this week. It will cost the American taxpayer $671m, nearly nine times as much the Indian mission. Use purchasing power parity (not really appropriate here) and the Indian mission still clocks in at less than half the cost of its global equivalent. Read more

In China, military license plates are even better than diplomatic ones. In addition to bestowing blanket immunity from all manner of traffic violations, they also inspire fear in the hearts of other drivers.

A similar sense of entitlement has long been enjoyed by Chinese military pilots. The People’s Liberation Army air force controls 80 per cent of the country’s not so friendly skies, leaving just 20 per cent of the ether for the fast-growing civil aviation sector. In the US, the airspace split is the other way round: 20 per cent military, 80 per cent civilian. Read more

Russia’s auto industry has been given a new lease of life by foreign car assembly ventures but it remains to be seen whether the same sort of technology transfer could rejuvenate civilian aerospace. Moscow-based Vityaz Avia is giving it a go with a plan to assemble Canadian Twin Otter regional jets at a plant on the River Volga. Read more

The ‘Ahrlac’ jet may not be an aircraft that you have heard of, but it has its place in aerospace history: it’s the first defence aircraft to be completely designed and manufactured in Africa.

Ivor Ichikowitz, founder and chief executive of its maker, Paramount Group, says proudly: “It’s 100-per-cent homegrown – it’s a big story for Africa, for realising that we don’t have to rely on the west to do things.” Read more

Hungarian diplomatic successes are rather scarce on the ground these days – Budapest has contrived to upset neighbours to east and west of late.

But Tuesday’s announcement that Hungarian air traffic control (ATC) is to direct the upper air space of Kosovo appears a genuine achievement, even if the Magyar Nemzet headline “We occupy Kosovo airspace” might appear a little triumphalist. Read more

Dreadful news for the Russian aviation industry. A Sukhoi SuperJet 100, the first new Russian passenger plane since the collapse of communism, went missing on Wednesday during a promotional flight in Indonesia with 50 people on board.

More than half a century since the Constitution of India came into force, it’s no surprise that the Republic Day celebrations have taken on a distinctly modern twist: this year, a Youtube video with 3m hits (and counting).

As people close to the government told beyondbrics, a government-backed panel has recommended that ministers should ban the former head of India’s space programme, Madhavan Nair, and three other eminent former space scientists from government jobs. The panel has alleged that the four were involved in the leasing of underpriced space spectrum to private telecom operators.

Nair has denied any wrongdoing and has vowed to fight to clear his name. Read more

As economies grow, so does their need to move goods and people about – by road, rail, and of course air. But with transport comes safety concerns. Where is it safest to fly among in EMs? And is Russia as dangerous as many stories this year have suggested?

Chart of the week looks at the safety records of some of the bigger emerging markets. It’s not as clear cut as you might think. Read more

Kingfisher Airlines, the creation of Vijay Mallya (pictured), India’s billionaire liquor baron and self-styled “King”, is so massively in debt that analysts told beyondbrics they wouldn’t be surprised if it went into bankruptcy or even ceased operations, potentially as early as next week when the airline is due to release quarterly results. Read more

Jetstar, the low-cost arm of Australian flag carrier Qantas, has had a turbulent time in Vietnam, afflicted variously by a police investigation into senior executives and disputes over payments for fuel and the use of its brand, which have culminated in the need for a cash injection.

But things could be looking up: Jetstar is in advanced talks that would see it tie up with state-owned monolith Vietnam Airlines, according to three people familiar with the situation. Read more

Fears of a global slowdown affecting China may be growing, but that’s not stopping the estimated 2.2m Chinese nationals enjoying their National Day vacation abroad.

The official China Tourism Academy says a rise in the value of the renminbi, relaxation of visa requirements and new flight routes are likely to generate a “double-digit” growth in the number of people who have left the country for so-called “golden week” – one of the two seven-day annual holidays in China. Read more

Boston Consulting Group has issued a report arguing that, at its current rate of expansion, Emirates will become the world’s biggest wide-body carrier by 2015. Its regional competitors, Etihad of Abu Dhabi and Qatar Airways, won’t be far off the top 20. But BCG warns that turbulence will increase as they boost their long-haul operations in an increasingly competitive international market. Read more

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beyondbrics is now the beyondbrics forum, given over exclusively to our guest writers as a forum for debate on the events, opportunities and challenges of the emerging world. Meanwhile, the FT’s emerging markets team is working on a new EM service to be launched soon on FT.com. Watch this space..